Al… Green? A Paperless PiPress?

Franken goes green? [Updated] “Homage, blasphemy, or clever marketing?” So asks Buzz.mn’s James Lileks of this positively Wellstonian bumpersticker design touting Al Franken. Clever marketing, as it turns out, but not from the Franken campaign. They say someone unaffiliated with the campaign created the stickers.

To whom shall we bitch? Former Stribber Deborah Rybak on hearing the paper’s readers representative was reassigned: “Kate Parry… lacked [former ombudsman Lou] Gelfand’s chutzpah during a time when [management's] hands needed some serious gnawing. Well, at least she answered the phone. Now, with the switchboard operators gone and an Orwellian computerized phone system in place, and Parry reassigned as a health care editor, readers with issues are going to be hard-pressed to find someone to bitch to in the newsroom.”

Pottying ways: What Par Ridder’s ethical lapses couldn’t do, a Star Tribune story on stall dividers being lengthened in the airport bathrooms could: Get Rake publisher Tom Bartel to stop subscribing to the Minneapolis daily. Sunday’s front page prominently featured the $25,000 plan to prevent Larry Craig-style sexual encounters in the mens room. Writes Bartel, “I’ll sleep better knowing that stuff I couldn’t possibly care less about is being assiduously covered by the Strib.”

PiPress e-paper: The Pioneer Press’ new e-newspaper doesn’t get rave reviews from Minneapolis blogger Aaron Landry, who wonders why it’s a good idea to charge people for material that’s already free on the website, but in a less accessible format. He adds, “Presumably, you’ll now be able to pay a premium to have a format that less searchable, doesn’t get corrected or updated the same way a normal paper doesn’t and ultimately cannot be linked to or aggregated.” The e-paper’s introductory rate for a 7-day, yearlong subscription: $53.30. Your Tech Weblog has more opinions.

Shilling for Flak: Flak Magazine‘s podcast is in the running for a regional Emmy, and if you ask me, their chances just got better: They interviewed me. Kidding. (I’m a kidder.) The episode [mp3], the 44th by Mediation’s Taylor Carik and writer/former Franken show research director Jim Norton, includes a discussion on the Twin Cities’ evolving online mediascape, as well as a look at last week’s internet memes and a rousing discussion on the inadvisability of cover bands tackling Ronnie James Dio’s “Holy Diver.”

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